


I have never watched a magical girl anime

by aroceu



Series: gender studies [4]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, Gen, No Ending, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-09-07 06:39:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8787577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroceu/pseuds/aroceu
Summary: Steven Stone is a magical girl.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This has no plot, and just kind of stops (rather than ends) but also it's fun and I enjoy it so take this a little seriously but not too seriously

Steven Stone finds out she's a magical girl soon well before she goes on her pokémon journey.

The girl part isn't something she quite finds out as she's been conscious of, and finally puts a name to when she's eight. She and Wallace are in her backyard, playing with their feebas and lileep, discussing the up and coming Elite Four candidates.

"I think the dragon guy's staying," Steven says, tossing lileep a pokéblock. Lileep takes it in then spits it out; Steven looks at the package in her hands. Pink. Duh. Lileep hates pink pokéblocks.

"Yeah, Juan says that that old man's _still_ not stepping down."

Wallace steals one of Steven's pokéblocks, tosses it to feebas who's soaking in the fountain. Feebas garbles it down eagerly.

"There aren't any girls in the Elite Four, though," Wallace continues.

Steven says, without thinking, "I could be the first."

Wallace blinks at her for a moment. Then he says, "You know what, I'm going to take you up on that."

Steven raises her eyebrows. "Being the first girl in the Elite Four?"

"No," Wallace scoffs. "Defeating you at the Elite Four. Let's be rivals!" He sticks his hand out, wearing an expression between a grin and a scowl that looks more forced than anything.

Steven laughs. "I'm pretty sure I don't want a rival who starts with only a feebas that knows splash," she says.

Wallace frowns and turns to his splashing feebas, who doesn't seem to care. "Don't listen to what she says, baby," he coos, and Steven laughs again.

*

But the magical part isn't something she discovers until she does go on her pokémon journey. Her father gives her a beldum, which she falls in love with. When she releases it from its pokéball, she goes over to hold it, when her father stops her.

"It's two hundred pounds," he warns.

Steven puffs out her chest. Her parents know that she's a girl, now; after she'd told Wallace, she'd gone over to tell them eagerly right away. They'd been confused at first and would accidentally call her "boy" and "he" for a while; a few months later and they seem like they've gotten the hang of it.

"I can carry it," Steven says defiantly.

Her father raises an eyebrow. "You can carry two hundred pounds? Can you carry me?"

"Sure," says Steven.

She wraps her arms around her father's legs and barely manages to get him off the ground. He laughs.

"I picked up the beldum from a pokémon shelter," he continues. "It's a broken in places, but I'm sure you'll take good care of it."

Steven inspects the pokémon; it's bigger and shinier than anything in her stone collection, but probably because it's metal, she realizes, when she taps on it. Professor Birch doesn't come by until tomorrow to give her her pokédex, so she can't quite get all the information on it.

A large part of its head looks particularly chipped away at. When Steven touches it, the pokémon makes a whining sound, and it falters from where it's hovering in the air.

"I'm sorry," she says softly, her hand still at the broken place. "I wish there was something I could do to help you."

As she says this, a silvery glow circles around her hand, around the beldum. Beldum hums in surprise, and they both stare with awe as the pale sparkly light focuses between them, shrinking under Steven's hand. When it's gone and she removes it, the beldum's chipped faction has been smoothed over and healed.

Steven's jaw drops open.

*

As it turns out, Steven can't be the first girl in the Elite Four, because by the time she's twelve and training to take on the sixth gym, a young woman with a flowery dress and flowers in her hair appeals on national television, stating jovially that she's proud to be the first female member of the Hoenn Elite Four.

"Bummer." Wallace is crashing at her place in Fortree. He's hanging upside down on one of the wooden monkey bars in the living room.

Steven says optimistically, "I can still be the first magical girl in the Hoenn Elite Four."

"Steven, I think you'll be the first magical girl in the Hoenn anything."

Wallace tries to swing up, but barely gets his head to reach past his knees. "You're not even the first magical girl to collect all the Hoenn Gym Badges yet. What's taking you so long?"

"There are a lot of cool rocks, okay!"

Steven had been sidetracked at Dewford for a few months. After defeating Brawly, he'd given her a full tour of the Dewford caves, and then she'd explored on her own – which took a while, because neither of her pokémon could learn flash. She did capture an aron, though; and then a skarmory when she got sidetracked at Fallarbor. She'd tried to teach her pokémon how to surf, much less climb waterfalls, but they were all too heavy. Such were the woes of having a mostly steel-type team.

She also won't admit that she spent too much time at Mt. Chimney, too, because she'd lived off of Lava Cookies and defeating Picnickers in battles for at least a month before realizing there was a town right at the foot of it.

Nonetheless, she had collected quite a number of rare stones she managed to identify based on what she remembered her father teaching her.

"You and rocks," says Wallace, shaking his head. "I'm _actually_ going to become Champion before you, just wait and see."

"Is that a real bet now?"

"You bet it's a real bet. And _I'm_ going to win, too, because while you go around exploring caves, I'll be getting through Victory Road and defeating the Elite Four!"

"Do you know how much wild pokémon there are to train against in caves?"

Wallace waves a hand. "Unlike you, I don't spend enough time in there to battle every zubat I encounter."

"That was once," Steven says, but Wallace ignores her.

He tries to jump down from the monkey bars and fails; instead, he lands forward, on his stomach, on Steven's skarmory decorated rug.

Steven pauses for a moment, until Wallace says, "I'm okay."

"It's a sign," she says.

"What, I'm getting hurt right now, so that means I'm also gonna become Champion?"

"That's not what I – " When Steven looks up from the television, she sees that Wallace is grinning and sporting a bruise on his arm. Steven lightly throws a pillow at his face and says, "Don't be careless."

*

Wallace becomes obsessed with contests when he goes to Lilycove City for the first time. "I can't believe you've never been here," Steven says as they descend off her skarmory.

"Well I've never flown out of Sootopolis before except to visit you, okay." Wallace's eyes are wide as he takes in the wildflowers and tall buildings. "And you said that there're contests."

"Yeah." Steven nods. "They're thinking of expanding it through the rest of Hoenn at some point. I think there's one now, if you – "

"I wanna see."

They go into the Contest Hall, a big red building overlooking the ocean. As Steven hands over her bag to the security guard, he nearly collapses from the weight.

"What's in here? Rocks?" he jokes.

"Uh," says Steven.

The security guard opens up the bag, and barks out in laughter. "What d'ya know," he says. "They _are_ rocks."

"I'll have you know that those are precious stones," Steven says defiantly, "everstones, leaf stones, water stones, thunder stones, hard stones – "

"Yeah, yeah, whatever kid, just don't throw them at anyone."

Steven gets her bag back, and she and Wallace start toward the contest arena. If the pokédolls at the prize booth suddenly magically transform into rocks, she won't admit to it being her fault.

Wallace oohs and aahs and jumps up and down in his seat during the pokémon contest. Steven had always thought they were pretty cool, but Wallace is squealing like he's met his true love.

"Can we watch another one?" he asks, when they leave the cool contest. "Wait, can we _participate_ in one?"

"Anyone can participate," Steven answers. "It's open to the public."

Wallace positively squeaks with excitement, and drags Steven away to the registration booth. Steven doesn't put her name down, but Wallace does, and forces Steven to stay with him so he can get feedback on his pokémon and fashion choices.

"You have _that_ many clothes in your backpack?" Steven says as Wallace pulls out outfit after outfit.

Wallace shoots her a dirty look over an overcoat. "You're the one with rocks in your bag," he says. "You could just leave them at our motel – "

"Someone could steal them!"

"No one wants to steal rocks," says Wallace.

He finally chooses an outfit, to Steven's relief. "Can I go?" she asks. "I'll be watching from the crowd, I promise."

"Actually…" Wallace spins around, with a sly grin on his face. "I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

And that, Steven learns, is how her magical powers, in addition to fending off wild pokémon and replenishing her supplies, can also be used to help her best friend win a pokémon beauty contest.

*

Wallace goes with her to Sootopolis, but once Steven's defeated the gym leader, Wallace pauses on their way out and says, "I'm staying."

Steven stops and turns around. "Staying where?"

"Here." Wallace hesitates. Then: "I'm going to ask Juan to mentor me. He's a Coordinator, _and_ a gym leader. He can help me get better at contests and defeat the Elite Four, at the same time."

"Are you sure?" Steven frowns. "You can train with me, if you want."

Wallace shakes his head. "I feel like this is the way I'm supposed to go."

"Well, all right." Steven smirks. "I'll see you when I'm Champion, then."

Wallace grins back. "You mean you'll see me when _I'm_ Champion."

Steven airily waves her hand, and then leaves. She hears Wallace yell as he falls through the gym's thin ice floors to the next level. The pokémon trainers down there should thank her.

*

Victory Road is long and winding; unlike when she was at Dewford she remembers that even though none of her pokémon can learn flash, she still has magical powers.

"There," she says, waving her glowing hands. She grabs one of her pokéballs and pops claydol out, because the journey is pretty lonely, and aggron and metagross are way too slow. "Isn't this easier?"

Claydol coos in agreement.

Her pokémon are stronger than she thought, but training for a couple of extra years in caves do that. Not any of them faint once, and as soon as Steven reaches the pokémon league lobby, they're all rattling in their pokéballs, filled with adrenaline, ready for another fight.

She makes it through Sydney alright, and then her claydol faints against Phoebe's banette so she defeats her with aggron. When she's done reviving claydol afterward, she goes up to Phoebe before leaving.

"I wanted to be the first girl on the Hoenn Elite Four," she says. "But I'm glad you were before me."

Phoebe smiles at her. "You can sbe the first girl Champion," she says. "There's still two trainers after me."

So Steven battles them, and wins with her metagross clanking in victory. The rest of the Elite Four congratulate her, and Phoebe winks at her.

She puts in her name in the records, swelling up with pride at seeing her blinking name on the computer screen. Phoebe comes up to her and links their arms together.

"You deserve a reward for this," she says. "Wanna go shopping?"

Steven beams. "Yes!"

So they fly on Steven's skarmory to Lilycove and Phoebe helps her pick out clothes. "Your Champion outfit," she declares, which Steven can get behind.

They settle on a slimming black jacket and trousers, with a red tie and purple blouse underneath. As Phoebe claps in approval, Steven adds a little sparkle in her twirl. Phoebe yelps.

"What just happened?" she says, picking herself back up from where she fell.

Steven laughs. "Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to say," she says. "I'm a magical girl."

*

When one of the Elite Four members decide to retire, Steven and the others go looking for another trainer strong enough to join them. Sydney demands that they have to battle him in order to make it, and Drake says that his dragons have to at least like them. (His flygon's very fond of Steven, but she's not sure about his salamance.)

Luckily within the month, a woman named Glacia comes by to volunteer herself, defeats Sydney in an hour, and tames Drake's altaria at the end of the day. By the end of the week, she's an official member of the Elite Four.

Steven's champion room is at the end of the building. After spending a half an hour walking there for the first time, she decides she's never walking up all those stairs again, and teleports herself back and forth instead.

She gets a message from Drake's flygon one day that there's a new challenger to see her. When she appears the champion's room, her challenger lets out a very familiar cry before falling over backwards.

"Wallace?" Steven says, nearly falling over herself.

Wallace brushes himself off. "Do you do that to all of your challengers?" he asks.

He looks different, but of course he does; it's been a few years. Steven chuckles and says, "Yeah, probably."

"So," Wallace says with a grin. "You became Champion before me, huh?"

"Guess I did." Steven places a hand at her pokéball belt. "And you've been training to defeat me?"

"You know I have."

"Well let's see if it's paid off," says Steven, and sends out her cradily.

Wallace defeats her, but only barely; his milotic and her metagross are both at their limits before her metagross faints first. Steven says, stepping down from the platform, "I guess we've both won, then."

"I guess."

Wallace claps her on the back. "You're still the Champion, though," he says. "I don't think it's the job for me. Not now."

"Yeah? What're you thinking of, then?"

"Becoming a Master Coordinator." Wallace's turquoise eyes sparkle. "Then I'll see if Juan wants to lend me his gym. He kept talking about how he never fully completed that because he kept training to be gym leader. So I could take over for him for a while so he can do that, too."

Steven bumps shoulders with him, grinning. "You're such a good friend," she teases.

"The best," Wallace agrees.

*

Steven's father comes out with a pokémon navigator a few years after that, giving Steven a prototype, and then an official when it's released to the public. Steven writes Wallace her information with a note that says _Register me!_ and Wallace writes back, _I can't believe I'm spending money just to talk to you more._

 _You would've bought one, anyway_.

The pokénavs have a setting that can inspect the condition of pokémon – something Steven had suggested to her father, actually, while thinking of Wallace. She also uses the match call setting when Drake and Glacia decide she's been away for too long hunting for stones, and lock her in her champion's room. Of course, it's a rare occasion when she gets a challenger, so she calls Wallace for a battle.

He does if he doesn't have any challengers either. They start to tally up each other's wins and losses, basically equal, Steven insists, until Wallace usually reminds her of their first official Elite Four match.

"By one," Steven would say, and sticks her tongue out at Wallace.

Wallace calls her, too, occasionally to discuss the pokémon league and gym leader politics (they've been getting at least one new retiree and replacement every month now.) When Steven hears that the Petalburg Gym Leader's been replaced by a trainer who has a daughter who's interested in battling the league, Steven perks up immediately.

She doesn't actually meet her until Steven's back at Dewford, hunting for stones again, and the trainer – May – has arrived to deliver Steven a letter. As Steven starts hearing about Team Aqua and Magma and investigates all over Hoenn to learn more, they run into each other again.

May is a quick and powerful trainer, already at Mossdeep for the seventh badge when Steven's there as well, having heard about Team Magma wanting to steal the fuel from the space center. Some grunts approach May menacingly and May, bless her good instincts, whips out her pokémon immediately.

Luckily, Steven only needs to whisk her hand and the grunts are pushed back against the wall in a series of sparkles and magical girl music.

"I mean, I guess my metagross could've done the same thing," she says, as May looks on with awe. "But I think meteor mash would've killed them."

 

They double battle against Team Magma and win; May has a unique hold over her pokémon that makes Steven think about Wallace and his pokémon during contests. She brings May back to her place on Mossdeep when they're done, and May follows with lingering curiosity.

"A token of appreciation," Steven says to her. "The hidden machine Dive." She hands it to May, who turns it over in her hands.

"You're always helping me, aren't you?"

Steven shrugs. "I'm just glad to see a young trainer girl like you so determined and hard-working," she says. "You're almost as interesting as the rocks I hunt for." She winks.

May puts the hidden machine into her bag, and then hesitates. "What was… what did you do to the Magma Grunts at the Space Center?"

"Oh." Steven keeps forgetting that not everyone can tell that she's magical at first glance, even less than the ones who can tell that she's a girl. "I'm a magical girl?"

"Magical girl Steven Stone to the rescue," says May, and Steven laughs.

*

Wallace calls for her when the sun's too hot and the rain's too heavy. Steven appears in Sootopolis within the instant, glad for these powers – she doesn't want her skarmory trying to brave conditions of almost rusting, and then almost melting.

May's the one outside of the cave, instead of Wallace, but it's fitting, maybe. "Steven!" she says, rushing over. "What are you doing here? Can you use your magical powers to make those two pokémon to stop fighting?"

She points out into the middle of Sootopolis, where Groudon and Kyogre are battling. Steven shakes her head.

"They're too powerful for me," she says. "Although – "

She spots the two team leaders on the other side of the city, Archie and Maxie, staring at the pokémon with fear. Steven flicks her wrist and then they've fallen over, tied up together.

"That'll make things easier later," says Steven. "Go into the Cave of Origin, May. Inside you'll find someone named Wallace. I think you have what's needed to help him."

May does. Steven leans back and stares at the hole of thunderstorm and sunlight that is the sky. If there was something she could do with her powers, she would; but she knows that too much exertion would only burn her out. There's only so much a magical girl on a pokémon journey can do.

May comes back out, a puzzled expression on her face. "I need to get to the Sky Pillar, I guess."

"You know where it is?"

May nods. Piqued by curiosity, Steven adds, "You don't mind if I tag along, do you?"

"Oh! No," May says quickly, and calls out her tropius.

They fly around and accidentally get lost for a bit, due to the on and off rainstorms and harsh amounts of sunlight. Eventually they find the Sky Pillar, though, a big obelisk in the middle of the ocean. They descend May's tropius and start to climb inside.

When they reach the second floor, they see that a significant portion of the ground has cracked, will probably break through if they step on it. May gulps.

"I only have my acro bike," she says fearfully.

Steven grabs her arm. "Screw this," she says, and magicks them to the top.

May nearly falls over when they land, breathless. "I always forget you can do that."

"I do too sometimes," says Steven, but decides to save the story where she wandered around the Dewford tunnels aimlessly in the dark for another time. "C'mon."

They approach the large green thing that's rayquaza. As soon as they're close enough to at least see it properly, the pokémon screeches and freaks out, flying out from the pillar. As it does, the whole building shakes, and several rocks start falling from the ceiling.

May cries out, and Steven shields her. Just as a rock almost lands on the both of them, Steven sticks out her hand and blasts it.

"Whoa," says May, lifting her head up.

Steven grins back at her. "Magical girl Steven Stone to the rescue?" she says.

May laughs.


End file.
